Thursday, May 22, 2008
LaunchBox08 Begins
We have kicked of the LaunchBox08 business accelerator program in Washington, D.C. Eight promising early stage companies have received an investment from LaunchBox after being selected out of a highly competitive application process. These companies will benefit from advice and mentoring from the LaunchBox founders and advisors, as well as collaboration with the other entrepreneurs as they work to refine and test their product offerings and develop business plans. Many of the companies share a common focus in social media, and the portfolio includes start-ups in the mobile, gaming, digital media, advertising, and communication sectors.
Earlier this week Haroon Mokhtarzada, Founder and CEO of Webs.com, and Tim O'Shaughnessy, Founder of Hungry Machine and LivingSocial, each shared their insights and advice with the LaunchBox08 entrepreneurs.
The companies will present at pitch days on August 6, 2008 in Reston, VA and on August 7, 2008 in Palo Alto, CA. If you are interested in attending pitch day, please send us an e-mail.
Labels: Kick Off, LaunchBox08, Pitch Days
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
LaunchBox08 Process Update
Thank you to everyone who applied to LaunchBox08. We were very pleased with the quantity and the quality of the applications that we received. Due to the overwhelming response, it took us a little bit longer than expected to complete our initial review of applications. We have recently completed our review of all applications and are now finishing up interviews with a subset of applicants.
While we wish that we could provide individual feedback to each applicant the time required to do so would make it impractical. However, we thought that it might be helpful to provide you with some insights into our review process. In general, the applications that stood out had many of the following characteristics:
-Clearly identified a problem with a large market opportunity
-Clearly described the solution to the problem
-Demonstrated an understanding of the market the company was entering and the competitive landscape (participants, differentiation, strengths, weaknesses)
-Demonstrated a capability or understanding of the requirements to solve the problem either through prior experience or prototypes/demos
-Demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit through either prior work experience or the progress made to date on the business
-Bios/resumes of the team indicated they possessed the capabilities to build the business
We wish all applicants the best of luck with their endeavors.
While we wish that we could provide individual feedback to each applicant the time required to do so would make it impractical. However, we thought that it might be helpful to provide you with some insights into our review process. In general, the applications that stood out had many of the following characteristics:
-Clearly identified a problem with a large market opportunity
-Clearly described the solution to the problem
-Demonstrated an understanding of the market the company was entering and the competitive landscape (participants, differentiation, strengths, weaknesses)
-Demonstrated a capability or understanding of the requirements to solve the problem either through prior experience or prototypes/demos
-Demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit through either prior work experience or the progress made to date on the business
-Bios/resumes of the team indicated they possessed the capabilities to build the business
We wish all applicants the best of luck with their endeavors.
Labels: Advice, Feedback, LaunchBox08
